


Trust Your Instincts

by AQLM



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pokemon GO
Genre: F/F, F/M, I'm Not Ashamed, Inspired by Fanart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-11 18:35:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7903336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AQLM/pseuds/AQLM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on the amazing fanart by Surfacage (http://www.surfacage.net/tagged/pokemon), a Pokemon Fanfic. I have as headcanon that a sufficiently advanced team leader has a bit of ambient magic conferred by her/his favored type. Sure, Candela may not be able to throw down with a Charizard, but you would need to keep a fire extinguisher handy if she got mad.</p>
<p>Blanche is a chick in this one because I like lesbians.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Let's go for a walk

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Surfacage Tagged Pokemon pages](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/225220) by Surfacage. 



“Why are you like this, Spark,” asked Candela.

The spiky headed Team Instinct leader didn’t look up from his Nintendo 3DS. In fact, he gave no indication of having heard Candela at all. He swiveled his body to the left, as if attempting to drive a racecar from underneath the oak tree, and then back again, almost tipping over. The jolteon on his lap opened a sleepy eye, ruffled a disgruntled burst of static electricity along her back, and resumed snoring.

“Because he’s lazy,” stated Blanche flatly. “Because his idea of a good fighting shape is somewhere between an oblate spheroid and a triaxial ellipsoid.” 

Candela raised an eyebrow at the Team Mystic leader, who was pacing up and down the lawn with her vapereon trotting beside her obediently. A path of frost was forming in their wake and the heels of her knee high boots began to crunch down the little frozen blades of grass. Candela watched the lawn’s destruction with increasing dismay. Professor Willow would have a fit if he came out and saw they ruined the gym grounds. Candela would need to find a grass – type trainer and borrow a victreebell to restore what Blanche was destroying.

“Somewhere between a who with the what now,” Candela replied, leaning back over the boulder where she was resting and trying to defuse the tension with a bit of joking. 

She didn’t know where her flareon had headed off to but she was sure it was lurking nearby. It might be fun to have a tussle with Blanche, one way or another, though not when the Team Mystic leader was in a slightly worse than her normal foul mood. Sometimes a bit of engagement might lead to playtime for their eevees…and the trainers…but the early arrival of winter implied that would not work today.

“Plump. Fat. Corpulent,” snapped Blanche, waving her pale hands in the air. “I’m endeavoring to generate three-dimensional shapes that approximate the physical condition of both himself and his Pokémon. Clearly my vocabulary has superseded both yours and his.”

Blanche stopped and put her hands on her hips, glaring back and forth between Candela and Spark. Her vaporean weaved between her legs and then skittered up her shoulder, encircling her neck like a chilly collar.

“No need to be snide,” growled Candela. “Not my fault that I spend more time on physical conditioning than book learning. And let me remind you that my path has served me well...or do I need to provide a reminder?” She lifted a dark eyebrow and Blanche pursed her lips into a straight line.

The two women glared at each other for a moment, then down at Spark. He was slapping the side of his 3DS, causing it to make little beeping noises in sad protest. Finally he let out a long sigh, slumped his head, and tossed the machine behind them, causing it to bounce and come to rest near the edge of the forest. He sprawled out against the tree and then lost his balance, causing him to fall flat on his back in the oak tree’s roots. He let out a tortured groan.

“And here I was going to finally beat Automaton in Bravely Default. Instead you distracted me because you two needed to start fighting over the dictionary as some stupid form of foreplay.”

A maroon flush colored Candela’s dark skin but her retort was cut off by Blanche.  


“Quiet, you,” she barked, pointing a sharp tipped finger at his reclining form. “And given everything we have coming up, shouldn’t you be doing something besides playing games?”

“But you made me looooossseee,” he whined. “Now I’m going to have to spend even more training time going back and trying to beat this boss. You’re lucky I know a guy who can help me if I get stuck.”

Blanche scowled and the pool of frost under her feet grew enough that Candela pulled her legs back up onto the boulder to avoid frostbite. Her flareon made its appearance and bounded down onto the frozen grass, leaving melted footprints behind it. This sent the vaporean on Blanche’s shoulder off and suddenly the two eevees were sparring, freezing and melting the ground as they played.

“I don’t have time for this, Spark,” snapped Blanche. “Do I need to remind you that we have competition coming up against the Starlight Gym? You know they are undefeated against teams featuring people more skilled than you. And the lazier you are, the bigger that list grows.”

She took two powerful strides forward and towered over Spark, who rolled over on his stomach and doodled a stick figure with tremendous “assets” in the dirt. 

“I can’t carry you, Spark,” Blanche continued. “Sometimes I can, but not up against an entire team of grass type Pokémon wielded by expert trainers.”

“Eh. Let Candela handle it. It’s always fun to watch her play, right?” He crawled his way to standing and brushed the dead leaves and bark, as well as a stray caterpie, off of his electric yellow hoodie. He raked a slightly dirt covered hand through his hair, leaving a trail of twigs behind.

“Please, Spark,” begged Candela. The already tense Blanche was reaching critical mass. Had she been a volcano, tiny streams of lava would have started rolling down her skin and puffs of smoke from her ears. But Blanche was frozen as her Pokémon. Instead, icicles began to dangle off the branches above them and thin cracks of blue formed at the sides of Blanche's pale hair. Candela made the executive decision to have her flareon stop playing and toss a bit of flame to counteract the side effects of Blanche's mood. No sense in killing a tree during a worse-than-average Spark vs. Blanche match.

“I don’t understand why you do this,” Candela said, hopping off the rock and walking to the young man. She rolled her eyes and began pulling debris out of his hair. He pouted and ducked down, yet stayed put long enough to let her do it. “We have to head out to the gym in three days and I haven’t seen you training any Pokemon for more than a few minutes. And that’s if I generously consider your teaching your jolteon to get you a beer as training.”

He clapped his hands together excitedly. “But that was really cool, wasn’t it? She can recognize the difference between a Budweiser and a Coors. I think the next thing I’m going to teach her is tequila!” 

He nudged his jolteon with his foot. “Fetch, jolteon,” he commanded, pointing at the tossed 3DS. The small creature complied and bounded back, dropping the console at his feet. He picked it up, brushed the bits of nature off it, and tucked it into the waistband of his pants.

Candela rubbed her forehead. “Please, Spark,” she said again, this time a little quieter. She bent her head down towards his ear. “An old classmate of hers lost his gyarados to these guys. He raised that gyarados from a tiny magikarp they caught in elementary school. Ten years of work down the drain. That’s how good Starlight Gym is.”

In response Spark leaned back, cracking every joint in his spine as Candela winced at the sound. Blanche leaned forward dangerously and Candela feared she might have to block a punch aimed at Spark's head. Instead, the Team Instinct leader held up his hands.

“Let’s take a walk,” He said cheerfully. He spun on one heel, the blue and yellow LEDs in his shoes twinkling as he did, and sauntered off into the forest.

Blanche let out a growl worthy of a full grown rapidash and turned the other way, preparing to stalk back to their gym. Candela caught her with one dark hand on one blue freezing shoulder.

“How about we follow, Blanche? You could use a break. And who knows, maybe we'll actually see something interesting for a change. Please? Just for me?”

Candela steeled herself for a snappy or angry retort, but the body under her hand sagged and the heavy aura of cold that had surrounded them dissipated. Blanche didn’t respond.

“I know how hard it was hearing about Glacial’s Pokémon. I don’t blame you for taking this seriously. And I don’t blame you for attempting to turn this garden into permafrost,” soothed Candela. “But it’s no fair taking it out on Spark, no matter how much of an annoying pain in the ass he may be.”

The young man called out from between the trees “I heard that! Now are you two love birds coming or not,” he demanded.

The two women simultaneously groaned, but when Candela walked towards the forest, Blanche followed behind, their eevees jumping over each other in fond amusement.


	2. Let's go for a swim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which instinct trusting is revealed. 
> 
> Warning: a bit of "circle of life" animal-on-animal munching takes place. PG rated.
> 
> This is the first work I've completed in a while. Yay Pokemon!

The forests behind Professor Willow’s lab were fuller than the average gathering of trees. The professor’s experiments were so voluminous and unceasing that he regularly bred, bought, or otherwise acquired more Pokémon than any trainer or gym owner could use in a lifetime. Other means of disposing them were unsavory, so he contented himself by releasing the rejects into the forest. They were further protected by walls and psychic fields that would shame a military installation; after all, it would not be sporting if a novice trainer could wander in and capture elite Pokémon on his first foray.

As a result, the journey into the forest was slowed to a crawl as Spark took upon himself to attempt to capture every one of these liberated Pokémon for his own collection. It was only on threat of discontinuation that he put away his pokeballs and focused on dragging the two women down a path. As they walked, Candela and Blanche discussed the recent implementation of a remote appraisal system for the new members of their team.

“While I appreciate the ability to check up on far-flung members of Team Mystic, it was not until Professor Willow decided on this feature that I truly comprehended the number of euphemisms in the English language for parts of the male genitalia."

“And breasts,” sympathized Candela. “I don’t know whether these poor Pokémon began their lives named after boobs or whether members of Team Valor are excited to force me to comment on their boobs.”

“Oh, Candela, as if you don’t do lots of boob commenting anyway,” laughed Spark. “And I think it’s great. I learned the word for penis in 30 different languages! I didn’t know there were so many members of Team Spark with my sense of humor.” He skipped ahead of them as the two women sighed and picked up their pace to catch up with.

“I do not understand the infantile obsession with primary and secondary sex characteristics, nor the desire to force other people to talk about them,” she replied.

“Oh, lighten up Blanche,” said Spark. “You're just mad people spend so much time guessing yours. Anyway, we’re here.”

Here turned out to be the edge of a massive lake, ringed with flat rocks and outcroppings of reeds. Below the rippling surface were schools of regular fish with tiny Pokémon slipping in and out of her vision among the seaweed and silt. A few popped up to the edge of the water and eyed the three trainers curiously. Then with a tail splash, they vanished again.

Candela thought back to all the times she had strolled by the forest on her way to the lab or when practicing outside. She never realized the trees hid a body of water this massive or a collection of Pokémon this diverse. She turned towards Blanche, who stood with her arms crossed next to Spark. The tow-headed young man, for his part, was making enthusiastic gestures and flailing with unbridled excitement. Candela worried he might whir himself onto the lawn in his frenzy.

“It is an above average body of water located in an unusual place. Am I to stare at it and find tranquil peace to soothe me,” noted Blanche dryly. “If there were an activity to reduce for my feelings about you, I would have implemented it long ago. Perhaps I would even quaff a remedy.”

The wild movement ceased as Spark bounded lightly onto a hunk of slate at the water’s edge. He peered in closely and ran his fingers through the water, then inspected them. He shook his head and jumped to the next rock.

“If he falls in, I am not helping him out,” muttered Blanche. “I might even push him under.”

Candela, for once, chose to ignore her. Sometimes, the battle against Blanche’s temper was not worth the hot breath it took to melt the queen of ice. Instead, she sidled up to Spark, who was still dipping his hands into the surface. His skin was beginning to prune and his eevee had settled nearby, curled her tail around herself, and gone to sleep.

“Er, Spark,” began Candela. “I gotta say I’m sort of bored hanging around out here by a lake. I mean, it’s pretty and all, but if I’m out here I would like to have a picnic or someone to spar with…”

He allowed a smirk to flicker across his face before he splashed over to the next location, humming to himself as he waded ankle deep into the water. A few more steps and he was up to his knees, his beige cargo pants now brown with lake water and a touch of mud.

“Ah, finally,” he cried at last. “I knew they were here.” He brought two pokeballs out of his pocket and tossed them into the air. 

“Swirly! Water pulse! Goosebump! Telekinesis!” 

A dark, pulsing Starmie and grouchy Golduck with a spiky head appeared in the water, bobbing up and down for a moment before complying with their effervescent master. It was clearly a duo who had practiced together, as the two eyed each other before using their abilities. Instead of attacking each other, anything in the lake, or any of the trainers, the Pokémon creating two perfectly floating water spheres.

With a wave of his hand, Spark took two wriggling creatures out of the lake and tossed one into each sphere. The golduck tilted one eye towards the sphere, then towards his master, then to the starmie. Candela swore she saw the star-shaped creature shrug four of its spiny arms in a gesture of intelligent irritation not usually associated with an invertebrate. It was a testament to Spark that he managed to annoy his Pokémon into advanced mental behaviors.

“Look,” Spark cried, “Floating fish!” He poked a finger into each sphere, then retracted them immediately when one of the creatures inside nipped him. He laughed and beckoned both of the women over. Blanche emitted a dramatic sigh, while Candela strolled towards the Team Instinct leader.

“Okay,” he began, pointing at the left orb. “This is a goldeen that just hatched literally a minute ago.”

Candela peered closer, able to see a tiny orange-finned fish with a yellow yolk sac still on its belly. Before Blanche could apply her nasty wit to criticize his choice of capture, Spark pointed to the right orb and stated, “And this is a conventional fish called a guppy, also newly hatched.” Candela gazed as the greyish slip of a creature, not nearly as fascinating as the Pokémon beside it.

“Yes, congratulations on your correct id-“

“Give it a rest for five minutes, Blanche,” said Spark in a rare display of actual frustration. “If you don’t like what you see, then, well, you can toss me in the lake.”

A snort was her response, but she crossed her arms and remained silent nonetheless.

“Okay, so, both of these little guys are both newborns. No mom or dad around to teach them. However…” He trailed off and motioned to the golduck behind him. “Shift, golduck,” he commanded. 

“Golduck,” replied the golduck. The right sphere moved over until it touched the other, their shining surfaces delicately gliding by each other without joining the contents.

The reaction from the animals within was instantaneous. The goldeen rushed towards the other sphere, poking and attacking the creature within as best it could from behind the barrier. The guppy fled to the bottom of its sphere, curling itself into a grayish ball in a patch of shadow. Undeterred, the long-finned Pokémon kept butting its head against the walls of the bubble, darting and moving as a chase.

Spark stood behind the two spheres and nodded at the women in front of him. “No one taught them who was predator and who was prey. No one taught them how to attack or how to flee. Natural animal or Pokémon, every creature who has ever walked, swam, flew, or flopped on this planet has instincts”

His face went stone serious and he nudged the golduck with his knee. The Pokémon moved the two balls of water until they merged. A second and a flash of color later, the goldeen enjoyed the first meal of its life. It flipped back and forth happily in front of the trainers until Spark commanded his Pokémon to relax. With a splash, the goldeen dropped back into the water and vanished into the seaweed. 

“There is a natural talent in every Pokémon, an instinct that drives each to its purpose.” He glanced towards the lake and back towards the other trainers. “Without that instinct, none would survive.”

“You,” gestured Spark with a steady but accusing hand towards Candela, “forge your Pokémon into a weapon and you,” his hand moved over to Blanche, “study, tweak, and adjust your Pokémon like you would a machine.” 

He dropped both his arms and patted the Pokémon at his feet. “Go play,” he said gently. The starmie and golduck submerged themselves and darted off. He watched them swim away and shrugged.

“To me, they’re animals who have evolved over millions of years without any of us around to push them onto a treadmill or under a microscope. We are completely unnecessary for their success.” He generated a smile that was barely happy. 

He turned away from both women and waded back into the lake, drenching himself to his waist. “You don’t see me train because most of the time, I’m not. I’m being with my Pokémon to understand them and their instincts. I watch them hatch, I watch them grow, and I see what happens. That way, I know when and who will do the best. No gym time required.”

He scooped water up and let it trail down his arms. “Everyone trusts their instincts. In the end, that’s all that matters. The best thing I can do is teach them to trust me.”

Candela blinked a few times. She did not know Spark possessed such insight or thoughtfulness. His unfeeling demonstration of the natural order of prey and predation gave evidence to a more steely, more determined persona under the perennial child he displayed. Candela turned towards Blanche, whose face had softened from frustration to something Candela couldn’t easily interpret. Understanding? Respect? Kindness? 

Spark glanced over his shoulder. “So, uh, Blanche? It’s been about five minutes. Should I get on a pair of goggles?”

The pale-haired woman shook her head slowly. “Not today, Spark. Thank you for your explanation. And even if I disagree with your attitude, it is clear you are succeeding. I have never seen two Pokémon move in concert like that.”

He gave a toothy grin. “Did you know psychic type Pokémon have a fondness for French fries? Goosebumps will do almost anything for a trip to Rock Village Burgers! So will I, for that matter!” He flexed his scrawny arms. 

Candela slumped. And there was the kid again.

“Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to spend some quality time out here with my Pokémon and my Nin-Oh hell!”

Spark reached into the sopping waistband of his pants and pulled out the 3DS. With a sigh, he opened it up. A bit of lake water rushed out, then a torrent of droplets as he shook it up and down. 

“Candelllaaaa,” he whined. “Can you fix it? You know, without melting it into a lump?”

The darker woman indulged him. “What am I, a hair drier?” She opened up her hand and he flung it at her. With a bounce, her flareon intercepted it and ran off into the forest. “For crying out loud,” she shouted, chasing after, a wisp of smoke trailing behind her.

Blanche suppressed a smile. “I suppose I should go after her. Knowing Candela, she’ll turn it on and short the electronics. I wouldn’t want to ruin your little toy.”

“Gee, thanks, Blanche.” She couldn’t tell how much of that was sarcasm or genuine gratitude. It didn’t matter. The boy had given her enough to think about that she could take a bit of talk-back.

She turned back towards the forest to saunter back to the gym and help Candela. Or hinder Candela. Whichever would be more enjoyable. She took two wide steps before Spark called after her.

“Hey Blanche! About that gym full of grass-type Pokémon…” He let out a shrill whistle and splashed his hands in a cheerful flail. A tremendous tentacruel, tiny bits of poison dancing on its many arms, emerged next to him and waved before slipping away. 

“Seventeen time undefeated champion, specializing in mowing down grass.” He laugh at his own joke, then continued. “You don’t think I’d let you go in there without backup, right? Don’t you trust me?”

Blanche, appropriately chastened, walked away. “Of course I do, Spark. As you said, everyone trusts their instincts.” 

He dragged himself onto the shore and flopped after her. “Does this mean I get a hug?”

“Don’t push it.”


End file.
